Enter a team at Melbourne's Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA), which is taking skin cells from affected patients, turning them into stem cells and then into new retinal cells.

These are then compared with the patient's damaged cells, allowing the researchers to see in detail what's gone wrong.

A new charity, the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia, has devoted its first investment to the project, bringing Kathryn Davidson, a US stem cell expert, to the centre from Seattle.

"We know (with macular degeneration) that certain cells in the retina die, and so do the other cells that depend on them, but we need to know how and why," Dr Davidson told those gathered at the charity's launch in Melbourne on Monday.

Dr Davidson said stem cell research lets her team "mimic the disease in a dish", with a view to finding means for better diagnosis and treatment.

Melbourne therapist and mum Michelle Kornberg, who was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration aged 30, knows the fear and frustration at the lack of available relief.

Doorways and blinds appear as uneven waves, and written words would intermittently vanish from sight, she said.

Worst of all, though, she said she feared she would one day forget what her own children looked like.

"I started to study their faces, because I thought, 'I could wake up tomorrow and not really be able to see them properly'," she told the launch.

Thankfully, Ms Kornberg's early diagnosis meant she could participate in a laser treatment trial, which has halted the progress of the degeneration - for now, at least.

Foundation chair Graeme Blackman said Australia has a strong leadership record on stem cell research, and the charity will fund projects and spread public awareness.